Logan Boulet Effect: Green Shirt Day calls on Canadians to become organ donors

Although COVID-19 has forced Green Shirt Day indoors, thousands have taken to social media – while donned in green – to honour the lives of those killed in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash and raise awareness about organ donation.

This Green Shirt Day marks two years since the tragic crash in Saskatchewan on April 6, 2018, when 16 people died and 13 were injured after a transport truck barrelled through a stop sign and into the path of the bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team.

Of the players killed, 21-year-old Lougan Boulet had signed up shortly before the crash to be a donor. While his organ donation saved six lives, it also sparked thousands of others to sign up to become an organ donor – a movement that has become known as the Logan Boulet Effect.

On April 7, 2018 Humboldt Bronco Logan Boulet saved 6 lives and inspired Canadians to register as Organ Donors. Today, WEAR GREEN & let's Inspire one another by registering and telling our family, because we are all in this together! #GreenShirtDay#LoganBouletEffectpic.twitter.com/TSGrAjMSds

According to the Canadian Transplant Association, 90 per cent of Canadians say they support organ and tissue donation, but only 23 per cent have actually completed their registration while 4,400 people in Canada await an organ transplant.

Canadian Blood Services estimated that within two months of his death more than 150,000 people registered to donate their organs.

In B.C., the day highlights how easy it is to register online, a process that only requires a personal health number found on a care card.

Last year, BC Transplant told Black Press Media that 3,328 people had signed up online to become organ donors within a week of Green Shirt Day. On an average day, the association sees 50 people sign up.